UK MPs urge FM to recognize Palestinian state

More than 60 British MPs have urged Foreign Secretary William Hague to vote in favor of a request for the UN recognition of Palestine as a non-member observer state, which is considered as the initial step toward the country’s full UN membership.
The UK lawmakers signed a parliamentary motion to express their support of the request for the status of non-member observer state for Palestine, which will be submitted by acting Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas to the United Nations General Assembly on September 27, 2012.
Former British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw was among the signatories of the motion, ranging from all political parties in Britain.
“Many MPs found it inexplicable that when Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas sought recognition of Palestine as a state at the UN Security Council last year, Britain sat on our hands and abstained,” said Richard Burden MP, Chair of the Britain-Palestine All Party Parliamentary Group, who tabled the motion.
“At the time, the Foreign Secretary said that different considerations would apply to a vote at the UN General Assembly. So I just don’t think abstention should be an option if, as seems likely, a vote takes place at the General Assembly later this month.”
Earlier this month, Britain’s largest unions body the Trades Unions Congress (TUC) representing 6.2 million working people in the UK also said it will vote on a motion in order to express solidarity with Palestinians who are living in the besieged Gaza Strip.
SSM/JR/HE